Monogatari Series - Volume 24 - Chapter 3.6

Mayoi Snake - Chapter 6 (Final)

From Yoimonogatari by Nisioisin

“So, Yozuru. How did it go? What was the outcome of the ritual of divine inheritance… I mean, what’s the punch line?”

“Went off without a hitch, Gaen-senpai. It ended up pretty different from how I’d imagined, but it was a success. It was a serious success, I should say.”

“Hmm. Alright then. What do you mean, specifically?”

“I gave Sengoku-chan the task of findin’ eighty-nine white snakes for Hachikuji-chan. Well, there’s nothin’ special about the number—I just wanted it to make big.”

“I see; that’s a method I wouldn’t have thought of. It’s like you, Yozuru. But capturing nearly a hundred white snakes alive, don’t you think that was a bit too hard? If things went badly, Sengoku-chan might have become a god again.”

“Personally, I wouldn’t have minded if that’d happened. The task might’ve been unrealistic, but it wasn’t unreasonable. I wanted her to atone for the all that pointless snake slaughterin’ she did.”

“A tone? Oh, atone. Hmm. Despite what you say about Meme and Deishuu, you’re pretty soft on kids too. That’s a side of you I didn’t expect to see.”

“I hear Yotsugi thinks you’re the one who’s the softest on kids, Gaen-senpai.”

“That damn doll. So, when you say ‘atone’… You wanted Sengoku-chan to help the white snakes breed, then? That’s your model solution?”

“Ya really are keen, Gaen-senpai. In a league of your own. Really, I take my hat off to ya.”

“In that case, will you please stop trying to land on my head over and over? It’s not easy dodging.”

“Don’t even need eighty-nine white snakes—ya just need to catch two of 'em, and they’ll have children. Someday, they’ll have enough descendants to match the number of snakes she killed. If you kill one, you kill the ninety-nine that follow after, but if you save one, you save the ninety-nine that follow after. That’s the basic principle of the circle of transmigration.”

“I think it would be plenty difficult just catching two, though. You’ve got to have one male and one female, too… The basic principle of the circle of transmigration, huh. Is that why you hate immortal oddities, because they break those basic rules?”

“No need to talk about me. The problem is, Sengoku-chan flagrantly disregarded the model solution I went through so much trouble to give her.”

“Flagrant disregard. Well, after all, you don’t rely on your sense of vision when you hunt snakes. Besides, Sengoku-chan doesn’t seem like the type that easily understands implicit meaning. But what kind of trick did she use to get through your ritual, then?”

“Y'know how the sacred object of that shrine is a paper talisman?”

“Yes? So it is. A snake, now that you mention it. What about it?”

“She used that. She drew eighty-nine white snakes on it, and delivered it her successor.”

“She drew pictures? She drew pictures—”

“It’s like they say, you can’t eat a drawing of a mochi—same with snakes.(1) Well, some people say the origin of kagami-mochi(2) has to do with the way white snakes coil around themselves…”

“…But did that satisfy you? I mean, if you’re satisfied, since I was the one who asked you to go in my place I have no right to criticize, but no matter how I look at it—”

“I had no choice. I’d heard from Yotsugi that she wanted to be a manga artist, but I was overwhelmed by her drawin’ skill—no, it wasn’t exactly that I got overwhelmed… Right, it made me believe I was lookin’ at the real thing.”

“The real thing?”

“Those white snakes looked as if they’d start movin’ any second. It’s not so much drawin’ skills as it is magic powers. Stands to reason, after she created four shikigamis with the basics Yotsugi taught her.”

“…In a way, she didn’t even have to make them breed, she simply brought eighty-nine living white snakes into the world. She multiplied them through drawings—she drew them up. Impressive.”

“Unfortunate that she didn’t seem to understand the significance of doin’ somethin’ like that in front of a specialist. I think that’s why it was right for her to yield the position to Hachikuji-chan. Too much of a good thing, y'know—Nadeko Sengoku should never have godhood, or anything like it.”

“Hmph. Well, it seems we don’t have to worry about Hachikuji-chan for the time being… Sengoku-chan, though. The girl for whom godhood was just a checkpoint. Given the situation, I should probably raise my assessment of her to the next level; she’s a promising newcomer, so I wanted to take the time to bring her up properly… But now might be just the time for her breakout moment. Now that she’s made amends for her past, how about we give her a job to do?”

“A job? Without any trainin’? Well, it was like that for us too, I guess. Whether she breaks out or drops out, the sooner the better, I think.”

“Sure you want to be talking like it’s someone else’s problem? You two already have a relationship, so I want you to take part in this—Yotsugi too, of course.”

“Hm? I don’t have a problem with that, but if Yotsugi and I are goin’, does that mean we’ll be dealin’ with an immortal monster this time—”

“Yes. As a matter of fact, it’s a continuation of this urgent business I’ve been handling… Since my contract with Koyomin forbids me from asking him for help, I’ve been a bit short on manpower.”

“So Sengoku-chan’s gonna shoulder the burdens of Araragi-kun’s carelessness, huh. What goes around comes around.”

“That’s right. Like a spiral; like a coil. In that sense, she’s perfect for this. Everything, including the target, is just right for her.”

Nadeko Sengoku’s first target will be an immortal monster—the five-headed serpent, Uroko Around.

So declared Izuko Gaen-san, the specialists’ manager who knows everything, in a place I didn’t know.

Takes a snake to catch a snake in the grass!(3)

Footnotes:

(1) The idiom “a drawing of a mochi” (e ni kaita mochi) refers to something useless or unobtainable.

(2) Kagami mochi (“mirror ricecake”) is a traditional New Year decoration made of two round mochi stacked on top of each other, the smaller one on top of the larger one.

(3) Buckle up, friends. The original line here (蛇の道はヘヴィー・ローテーション!, ja no michi wa heavy rotation) has a lot going on that was impossible to take into English. As in my translation, there are two conjoined expressions here—in mine it’s “takes an x to catch an x” and “snake in the grass”—in the original it’s “takes one to know one” (using snakes as the example) and “heavy rotation”. Heavy rotation refers to something repeating over and over, typically a song on the radio or wearing an outfit. “Rotation” might be yet another spiral/coil reference, too.